Over the last few weeks I have made a conscious effort to change my diet. I have been nourishing myself with good food, learning which foods I have sensitivities to, and talking through the entire process with a supportive group of people all doing the same thing. I have lost about ten or so pounds, have lost inches from my waist, and feel like a zillion bucks. How much is a zillion? It is a lot.

The supportive benefits of this experience are untold. I am energised and educated. I am empowered. I have not done this alone; I would not have known where to find trustworthy information. My friend (and yours!) Tammy the Clinical Herbal Therapist has spent years in research and educating herself on this, as well as other health-related subjects. How fortunate we are that she can help us!

I am currently at the stage where I can reintroduce foods into my diet. Who would have thought a yellow pepper would suddenly be so zingy? I have a sensitivity to peppers. I will, therefore try to eliminate them from my diet. Easy to figure this out!

Having learned new recipes over the last few weeks, old standbys that I had been accustomed to buying and eating daily are surprisingly simple to replace. I didn’t think that I could live without cheese. This is one of the things that I will soon be re-introducing. I am looking forward to the experiment, and hope that I am not sensitive to cheese. However if I am… I will still be able to feed myself!

Like this:

Recently, circumstances conspired so that I had the means to create a new recipe, using ingredients I don’t usually have on hand. I had a package of thawed smoked salmon (thank you, friend who moved and cleaned out her freezer into mine!) The other day I noticed that goat’s cheese was on sale at my local supermarket. I had some fresh dill-infused olive oil leftover from a salad dressing from a few nights ago. Grape leaves are easily available at my local Community Gardens. Naturally, thinking of these ingredients, I made some Altered Dolmades.

I have never made a dolmade before, but from my fully adequate experience in eating them, I know they usually have rice inside. I am trying to eat fewer carbohydrates, so I thought to replace the rice with cheese. Yes!

rolling up the yumminess

So, here is a delicious treat to fix up in very little time. Please note everything is changeable, and you can add anything you want (hot peppers, olives, capers, other cheeses, little bits of bacon…) If you like your rice, you could mix some cooked brown or white rice into the cheese mixture. One thing I really wish I’d had for this was some lemon. I would have squirted it overtop before baking…

*Cheese mix: 1 tube of goat cheese (I used “herbed”), two sprigs of green onions chopped up fine, two tablespoons of crushed almonds, a sprinkle of salt

*Olive oil/dill mix: a couple of sprigs of Dill, settled into a small bowl (about 1/4 cup) of olive oil, and a few grinds of pepper. (Please note in the photographs, I’d used too much oil. Try about 1/4 cup, or even a little less.)

METHOD: I laid out the grape leaves so that about four to six of them were on my work surface, overlapping. I then took a piece of the fish, and rolled it around a spoonful of the cheese mixture. Then I blobbed a little more of the cheese mixture onto the outside of this fish-tube, and rolled it up in the grapeleaves.

I used a little casserole dish to lay them out in. Once then were all there (I had enough to make about six dolmades) I drizzled the olive oil/dill overtop.

I used the leftover oil afterwards for yet more salad dressing.

BAKE in a moderate oven ’til done (about half an hour? or more or less… everything is edible raw so you can’t undercook.) When I say done, I mean the smell is unbearably delicious, and the grapeleaves are very dark.

If I’d had any leftover grapeleaves, I’d have simply added them to my salad.

A very simple, easy and delicious (oh yes, and nutritious) salad was my fast lunch today.

lunch today!

I used prewashed, organic arugula greens from my local grocery, accompanied by delicious stuff I had in my cupboards. I “mixed” it all on the plate I ate off of. It took about a minute to make lunch, and about three to eat. My kind of fast food!

It is 29°C, there is a strong wind and all the plants in the garden are suddenly crying. You could say that we have some heat. The transition from blah rain to all of this warmth is a little exhausting. I am now inspired to experiment with coconut milk and frozen fruit.

Want something sweet and refreshing on a hot day? Try this!

instant ice cream

600 g of mixed frozen fruit (I used a 670g mixture of mango and raspberry today.)

1/2 can of organic coconut milk

1 tablespoon of sugar (optional)

a couple good glugs of vanilla

1. So easy! Put everything in a food processor and blend until very smooth.

2. Put into neat little individual containers. I was able to make seven 125ml containers. Chose containers that will be easy to navigate with a spoon. Allow to sit for a few minutes at room temperature if you are going to enjoy this straight from the freezer.

Today’s the day… time for an early harvest of my tiny sprouts! I know I could grow them for two or three more days, but I am anxious to give them a taste. Tonight they will find their cute little way into a mixed salad.

about to leave their glass home for the free-living lifestyle of a salad

I will immediately “plant” more in the jar. In a day or two I’ll start another jar’s worth of sprouts, so that I will have sprouts ready every couple of days.

little pals, eager to nourish? I hope so

In the future, I’ll have two or three different sorts of sprouts, and do this staggered method of germination and harvesting with all of them. I’ll refine the system, and try to set it up to look nice, too.

I love sprouts! Gardening you don’t need to put on shoes or a coat for…

Combine these two women’s talents for an inventive and innovative experience that is tailored to meet your needs. For groups, clubs, corporate teams, or just a gathering of friends, Tammy and Natasha will craft a unique workshop with the greatest of expertise and care.

Tammy is a Clinical Herbal Therapist with an extensive knowledge of herbal remedies. Outside of her clinical practice, she excels in creative Green ideas for the home, bath, and beauty. Let’s not forget that she is brilliant in herbal/cooking fusion! Tammy will encourage you to grow and create while you learn.

Natasha is a graduate from the Emily Carr Institute of Art in Vancouver, with experience in teaching painting, felt-making, crafting, and general creativity to groups of adults and children alike. Natasha is an empowering instructor who invites the potential in every student.

Fleurbain will come to your location for workshops, or we can meet in our central studio location. It’s up to you.

in the midst of cooking/herbal infusion

A very few ideas for your workshops: Herbal bath treatments and notebook making; Team-building mural painting with a herbal tea session; Puppet-making workshop for kids or adults; Painting with herbal pigments; Informative nature walk while drawing from nature; City-scape walks, seeking nature in an urban environment; Crafting workshops with groups. Check out the two-day experience we hosted recently, in which we steeped herbalism and crafting together to create a unique Spa Weekend.

creative learning through activity

The sky is not even the limit… Give us an email at fleurbain@gmail.com to see what we can do together. Please provide dates and location desired for the workshop, as well as a rough idea of number of participants, their ages, and the purpose or reason for the workshop (eg team-building, fun event, educational, etc). We will put together a package customized for you and your group.

Nigella Lawson is a woman who knows food, and she’s not afraid to show her love for it. In the last few weeks I have discovered a great recipe from her latest cookbook called Kitchen. Beyond being tasty, this recipe has made my life much less complicated.

It is her mother’s Praised chicken. In the last while, I have made this recipe once a week. It gives me enough soup stock and chicken to make tasty soups and salads all week long. Long ago, I remember someone from Saskatchewan telling me this is a great way to cook chicken because it made a delicious and clear stock. I thought that roasting chicken is the best way, so I never bothered with this other method. Well, years pass, and I now see that I have been missing out on something both great and efficient. Both the soup stock and the left over chicken are delicious. AND most importantly, it saves me time by making a stock and cooking a chicken, all at once.

What I do each week goes something like this. I enjoy the chicken as a hot meal on the first day. Within the same hour of preparing the chicken, I distribute the stock into individual portions that I can reheat during the week. I then take apart the chicken (by far, my least favourite job!) and put this in individual jars, so that I have portions ready for any kind of salad. The rest is a matter of finding a little lettuce and a few veggies, and then I am set for the week! Truly, this is fast food. And it is affordable, even if I buy an organic chicken.

Earlier this week I also discovered a similar recipe in the New York Times. It is a saké steamed chicken with ginger and scallions.

So, with many of my lunches being ultra-healthy and fast, it seems to make for a really nice week. And as a bonus, I feel that I can relax when I decide to go for a small treat at my favourite café. With balance, living is very beautiful.